Its your environment too...don't let others Greenwash it
In the begining…
As the “green” movement has taken root we are now bombarded with products, ads, companies, and even environmental groups claiming to have the solution to many of our “eco” problems. After researching many of these products and claims I have found out that many of them are profit or objective garnering “greenwashings”. So what is greenwashing…?
green·wash (grēn’wŏsh’, -wôsh’)
- (v) The dissemination of misleading information by an organization to conceal its abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image.
- (n) The information so disseminated.
According to Terra Choice Environmental Marketing, there are seven specific sins of greenwashing:
- Sin of the Hidden Trade-off–wouldn’t it be terrible if paper was made from sustainable trees but the process poisoned the well
- Sin of No Proof–many biodegradable or degradable claims aren’t supported by test data from third party labs or in accordance with recognized standards
- Sin of Vagueness–if a label read ”contains up to 90% recycled content” it wouldn’t be uncommon for it to only have 10%…in a case like this it should state contains at least 10%.
- Sin of Worshiping False Labels–often when there aren’t certifying agencies or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) companies resort to printing labels that look like certification seals
- Sin of Irrelevance–would an organic cigarette be any more healthy than non-organic one?
- Sin of Lesser of Two Evils–if a manufacturing process produced less of one chemical discharge but substituted it with an equally hazardous one it would be irrelevant to market the absence of the first as a product improvement
- Sin of Fibbing–often ads or claims are just false, either in how they present their attributes or how they stack up to the competition.
This blog www.greenwashwatcher.com and forum www.greenwashdebate.com were established to give consumers a voice in in this new world.
Our hope is that we can:
- “out” environmental frauds be they products, companies or NGOs
- link consumers with mainstream scientific data
- laud products, companies and NGOs that make significant contributions to our environment
Hope you have an eco day
-The Greenwash Watcher (GWW)